Moldovan court dismisses appeal of former premier’s lawyers

Chisinau, 5 April /MOLDPRES/-Chisinau Court of Appeal today dismissed the appeal submitted by the lawyers of former Prime Minister Vlad Filat, against the ruling of Chisinau’s Buiucani district court, which extended his preventive arrest warrant by 30 more days. A statement to this effect was made by Prosecutor Adriana Betisor today.  

According to Betisor, the appeal was dismissed “as it was unfounded, thus ascertaining the plausibility of Buiucani court’s ruling”.

The prosecutor noted that Vlad Filat had not attended the court session at the Court of Appeal. “The culprit submitted a petition asking that the court hearing be held in his absence, without giving any other additional reasons,” Betisor said.

Buiucani court decided to prolong the preventive arrest warrant against Vlad Filat by 30 more days on 29 March. The messages posted on the culprit's personal profile on a social network, as well as some intimidating letters sent to prosecution witnesses, are the key-grounds upon which the ruling is based.   

Former Prime Minister Vlad Filat was arrested on 15 October 2015, after a preventive arrest warrant on his name was issued by the National Anti-corruption Centre and the parliament stripped him of immunity. Filat is accused of influence peddling and passive corruption in the Savings Bank fraud file.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, Editor M. Jantovan)